The present invention relates generally to the field of entering data into a computerized system by standard telephone signals and, more particularly, to a data transmission system for reading and converting bar coded alphanumeric characters into standard telephone system signals.
It is a common practice for persons to input information into computerized systems, such as voice response systems used for many commercial applications, by pressing keys on a tone signaling telephone. This practice has been employed, for example, by lottery ticket sales agents in many state-sponsored instant lottery systems in the United States. In such systems, a player can find out immediately after purchase of a ticket whether his or her ticket number is a winner. For immediate validation of an apparently winning instant lottery ticket, an interactive call processing network is used by the ticket sales agent for identification of the agent and verification of the instant lottery ticket number such that the agent can make payment to the holder of a winning ticket on-the-spot or "instantly".
A major drawback of this practice is that information has to be manually entered into the interactive call network to obtain ticket validation. In other words, ticket sales agents have to manually key in the data to find out whether a ticket number is a winner entitled to receive immediate payment. Manual entry is error-prone and time-consuming, thus providing a source of public dissatisfaction and a bottleneck for instant lottery systems.
Consequently, a need exists for an alternative approach to instant lottery ticket verification which will avoid the drawback and potentially deleterious effects of the current practice on the popularity of instant lottery systems.